Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.
From this point in the story forward, the rating is R. The first, second, third, and fourth books are all PG-13. Not all chapters will be that high, but I'll keep the overall rating to be safe. I'll give you a notice if it's a really bad one.
A Turning Point
Although it was still slightly disturbing, Ryua was enjoying her father's good mood. He'd come home exactly one night, or morning, it was that late, and fired curses at whichever of his family members or servants dared interrupt him. Ryua had collected one nasty welt along her side, curling onto her belly, but that was it. She was still expecting to wake up, and discover that Lucius hadn't been nice, that she was just having a dream and needed to survive the full two months of summer holidays, but July finished without a hitch.
August First, they were taken into Diagon and Knockturn alley to shop for birthday presents. Ryua knew better than to ask for a broomstick, although mother did let her look for a while. Instead, she got a fully stocked potions kit. Not the usual student one, this was the complete thing, containing everything in Snape's school cupboard, and some he probably didn't even have in his private stores. Dragons' blood, Billywig stings, Acromantula and Manticore venom, Erumpent exploding fluid, even Demiguise fur for invisibility potions. And crystal, silver, gold, and a few lead implements, because they could stand up to even the most devastating potions when used in the right orders. Mother said she could go down Knockturn to pick up some of the more shady ingredients herself; she had never been very comfortable there, even though her reputation as Lucius' wife ensured her safety.
So, Ryua was just leaving a rather well-hidden shop, having purchased and directly transported home some Acromantula fangs, her wand within easy reach, carrying no obvious wealth, and looking quite calm about killing anyone who tried to mug her. And she turned into a small side-alley, one which would bring her out just down the street from her family's floo-outlet.
There were footsteps. Which, although odd, because it wasn't a very large passage, or well used, wasn't completely unusual. People who knew these things existed used them a lot, to get quickly from one place to another, and to lose pursuers. There were a lot of pickpockets, and less gentle types in Knockturn Alley, mostly because everyone turned a blind eye, unless it affected them directly. Hence, the footsteps not quite an echo of her own were enough to make Ryua turn around.
No one. She didn't see anything, just a mix of shadows, too jumbled to pick out individual shapes. She turned her head back forward, and picked up her pace just a little.
And the not-echo started again. She turned around again, pulling her wand this time. "Lumos!" she snapped, sending a broad swath of light down the alley. Not that it did any good. There was no one there, although there was so much junk that there were plenty of places to hide. With a snarl of frustration, she turned back to her original direction, noting with some (very hidden) apprehension that she was almost exactly halfway down the alley. No one would be interfering, not that they necessarily would anyway. She decided that dropping the crumbling façade of unconcerned dignity in favor of speed was probably a good idea, and broke into a run.
Bad idea. She had gone just a few steps, enough to get to full speed, when her feet were knocked out from under her, by what she recognized as a basic tripping charm. Normally, it was amusing to see someone fall flat on their face, then get up embarrassed. However, when someone was running full tilt, it wasn't nearly so amusing.
She didn't even have time to catch herself. She hit the ground hard, all the breath knocked out of her, and worst of all, Ryua heard her wand skitter away down the alley. And I can't use a summoning charm...She couldn't even push herself up onto her hands, only lie there, gasping for breath, unable to hear anything over the wheeze of her bruised lungs and the blood rushing in her ears.
A force, magic again, by the prickling feel on her skin picked her up. The vertical position let a decent breath of air bubble down her throat, only to have it forced back out when she slammed against a wall. She vaguely felt her arms and legs bound to the stone, by some sort of rock-shaping spell, and the panic she'd been trying to fight down broke completely loose. Trapped...
She forced her head up, and her eyes to focus, still unable to suck oxygen down her throat. A figure stepped out of the shadows, one that was all-too familiar. She tried to say his name, to threaten him, curse him, anything...
"So, you think you're too good for me? You think you can just refuse? Hah. Let's see you refuse me now." Blaise Zabini stalked forward, his whole body tense, quivering.
With a thrill of terror, she realized just how she was tied onto the rock, spread-eagled, just slightly lower than him. Ryua tried to force her aching lungs to take a breath, so she could scream, utter a curse, even to clear the fog obscuring her thoughts, blocking off her magic.
And then, she didn't have a way to draw breath at all. Zabini was pushed up on top of her, crushing her already bruised chest to the wall, his mouth blocking hers. Her jaws wouldn't close, her body overriding the need to bite with the need to try and breathe. And I still can't move...Ryua pulled frantically at the stone circles around her arms and legs, until she could feel the magic stone cutting into her flesh, but she couldn't force her hands through, the bones wouldn't get any smaller, though the blood was trickling down her arm. "You are mine. You are rightfully mine, and I won't be denied." He growled, pulling at her robes, while she fought for breath and freedom, losing both battles. She was only managing short gasps, barely enough to keep conscious, and then he tore through the fabric, and pressed up against her again, cutting off even that scant support.
Ryua was fading, the dark alley blurring together, the sharp pain in her limbs dulling to a throb. And then, just as she felt him starting to probe around, just shy of invading her, something snapped.
She wasn't entirely sure what happened, but everything snapped into focus. Zabini glowed with a silvery light, floating up from her, a furious expression on his face. After, she thought that expression, one of affronted injury, of having a well-earned treat taken away, that was what did him in. Somehow, through a well of strength she hadn't realized existed, her link to her magic blasted wide open. Eyes narrowed in hate, her attempts to breathe forgotten, overridden in her fury, she pushed.
Zabini flew backwards, harder than she had. Much harder. He hit the wall opposite with a loud crack, slumping senseless down to the ground leaving a trail of blood behind him. Ryua's breath rushed in all at once, only to be knocked out for a third time as the stone bonds holding her to the wall slid smoothly back into flat bricks. This time, maybe to keep her from doing anything else dangerous, her body pulled her right into unconsciousness.
It couldn't have been more than five minutes later that she awoke. Her ribs and lungs ached horribly, although they were pumping air again. Her ankles were raw, the skin torn slightly on the right where she'd tried to pull out through the stone manacles. Her hands were the worst, the flesh mashed and cut almost to the bone under her thumb and pinky, as she'd been concentrating all her efforts to get free.
Wait, how did she get free? Zabini wouldn't have just dropped the manacles, even if he were injured, it would have been fairly easy to get up and stun or silence her before someone came to investigate. In fact, she couldn't think why he would have let her go, it made no sense whatsoever.
Unless he didn't let me go. Ryua knew that many spells stopped when the creating mage was prevented from keeping them up. Which meant she'd hit him against that wall pretty hard, hard enough to render him unconscious.
She walked over to him on her knees, unable to use her hands to support her, and not strong enough yet to stand up. He lay crumpled at the bottom of the wall, blood leaking from the back of his head, already pooling on the ground beneath him. And then she noticed bits of other things stuck to the wall.
Dead then. She didn't feel any remorse, and didn't feel she should. He'd been trying to rape her, and she'd given him fair warning to never touch her again. Oh, wait, this could cause some problems...
She had just killed someone. True, she'd done it in self-defense, and hadn't really meant to kill him, although she didn't exactly mind the outcome. I have to get out of here. I have to find mother or father, or even Draco. Before someone comes and does something else. Ryua turned so her back was against some old crate and pushed herself up to her feet. Not wasting any time, she stumbled out of the alley, only stopping to pick up her wand. If anyone else tried to follow her, he wouldn't get close enough to even try.
